Rain of Gold

Juan arrives in California and is delighted by the warm, sunny weather. He shows up brandishing his newfound wealth for all to see. Luisa at first mistakes him for a criminal but then realizes it is her long-lost brother. She explains that their mom isn’t really sick, she just wanted him to come home. Juan and Doña Margarita reunite in a tearful embrace. She tells him he must never leave again and that she is only staying alive long enough to see him married. At first he says he must go back to Montana, but then he agrees to her wishes. That night they celebrate with their neighbors then stay up all night talking. Luisa shares that Inocenta is married with children and that they have located some of their cousins. She reveals that some of the cousins took advantage of them and that his mother gave some of the gold away to their sister, who deserted them. Both of these facts cause Juan to fly into a rage because he feels his mother doesn’t appreciate his sacrifice. She tells him to move on from the past and think about finding a wife, someone “sacred” (203).

Juan dedicates himself to fixing up the house for his family. His nephews help him, and they ask about Mexico and their family’s past. Juan storms away when he realizes his nephews don’t believe that their family was ever “big” and “powerful” (205). They think only white people, not Mexicans, can be rich. He feels torn between wanting to be with his mother and wanting to return to Lily and Katherine. Luisa realizes he may desert them and confronts him, saying they “need” him to stay since he is a man (206). He agrees to stay and decides to look for a pool hall to gamble in. He remembers all the rules Duel taught him about how to be successful at poker, including to eat breakfast at dinner time. Juan tries to do this but is thrown out of the breakfast establishment for being Mexican. Juan is enraged by this policy and leaves “ready to kill” (208). He goes to a place where he saw men playing poker earlier and joins in. He starts out cautious but then starts winning bigger and bigger hands. This leads to one of the men trying to cut this throat and kill him. Juan moves slightly so only his chin is cut instead, but before he can defend himself, he blacks out.

Lupe and her family all get jobs in Arizona after crossing the border. Despite this, they are still poor. One day Lupe sees a beautiful peach dress in a store window, a dress that would cost more than all of their week’s salaries combined. A week later Doña Guadalupe uses the last of the gold to buy the dress for Lupe. Lupe is astonished and so happy. She wears it to church the next week and continues to “caress” it (212). After church, she goes to the movies with her siblings and Carlota’s friends. While there she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror and realizes how beautiful she is. The family’s struggles increase as Don Victor starts to lose his strength and Doña Guadalupe starts to lose her mind. Lupe also grows ill from the heat, and the family is severely compromised. They travel west to California, and though Lupe worsens along the way, she completely heals when they get to San Diego. They continue on to Santa Ana, where Don Manuel lives. He helps them get jobs, and they start doing decent enough to allow Lupe to return to school.

Initially Lupe has to enter the third grade even though she is a teen, but a few months in she is moved to seventh grade. After school one day she is preparing dinner for her family, who are still out working, when she hears a knock. She opens the door to a decrepit man who asks for water. She provides him water, and he asks about her family and where she is from. Lupe confirms all his questions but then questions how he knows so much about them. He explains that he is Sophia’s husband. Lupe is in shock since everyone but Doña Guadalupe believed Sophia was dead.

Once the family gets home, a neighbor brings them to Anaheim, a nearby city where Sophia lives with her husband and children. She explains she had gotten off the ship that sank and boarded a different one. She was robbed within her first 24 hours on the ship and was treated the whole way like “cattle” (216). Upon arrival, she was immediately swindled by the man she pawned some jewelry too. Luckily she was taken in by a couple who felt bad for her. She traveled with them to work in some cotton fields. The owner, Johnny, refused to pay her what she deserved because she was not married. He then proposed to her, which she refused. She tried to leave with the couple the next day, but Johnny refused to let her go. The woman who worked with Johnny told Sophia that she should be pleased with the proposal and happy that he didn’t just rape her. Johnny proposed to her every day after that. He then cut off her food supply. Shortly after, starving and near hopeless, Sophia spotted Francisco crossing over the ranch where she was trapped. She gave him what little food she had and explained her situation. His first reaction was to get out of there as fast as possible, but Sophia insisted he help her in some way, so he agreed to let her travel with him. They traveled and worked together, eventually marrying. After Sophia finishes recounting her story, the family laughs, prays, and plants some lily bulbs together.

A few months later Lupe and some of her family members travel to an apricot farm for work. On the way they need to stop for milk and eggs. They spot a house with a goat and chickens and pull over to ask if they can buy some milk and eggs. Luisa answers the door and agrees to give them access to the chickens and the goat in exchange for a box of beans. Both Juan and Doña Margarita condemn this act as evil, since the eggs have already been picked for the day and the goat is ornery and violent. However, as Doña Margarita watches Lupe approach the goat from the window, Lupe is able to calm and milk it. Doña Margarita also notices that Lupe is gorgeous so goes to find Juan so she can introduce them. She finds Juan already outside observing the men Lupe came with. He doesn’t notice Lupe walk up, but Doña Margarita sees Lupe notice him, and her look is one of “revulsion” (222). Doña Margarita admits to herself that her son is probably not “ready” for a woman like Lupe (222).

Time goes on and Doña Margarita prays for Juan to heal. He looks for work at a rock quarry where he quickly becomes the butt of discrimination. About to leave in a rage again, the company announces they need powder men, a job only Juan is qualified for. They hire him on the spot. Once on the job, he does excellent, steady work. At lunch, however, all the other powder men gang up on him because he is Mexican, not white. Juan walks away from the group and joins the Mexicans, who are eating under a nearby tree. They welcome him and offer him a taco. They are in shock that Juan is both Mexican and a licensed powder man. Juan explains he was only licensed because the men in Montana thought he was Chinese. Juan returns to work where another man named Jack competes with him. Juan keeps up despite not being as in shape as Jack. At the end of the workday the guy running the show tells Juan to keep to himself and he will always have a job. Juan takes his family grocery shopping that night to celebrate. His mother comments about how happy she is to see Juan “settling down” and how she hopes his gun won’t scare off any more women like it did Lupe (229).

When Juan shows up for work the next day, he isn’t allowed to keep working with the powder men. The Mexican workers say that it is because he outworked the white men and that he should be proud. While they are at work, an unannounced explosion ends up killing some of the Mexican men. Later on at the bar, they decide to unite and demand better protection as well as a remittance for the affected families. They show up and make their demands the next morning. They are threatened by men with pistols and told that a new horn has been purchased to avoid future accidents. The men give in, and Juan goes wild, screaming at the Mexican men, “I piss on you!” A fellow worker named Julio joins Juan in escaping the quarry, and they run away to Mexicali, where they begin a small operation bringing bootleg alcohol across the border. Over the next year Juan gambles constantly, always on the lookout for the two men who cut his face. He becomes “known as the man who couldn’t die” (234).